


the rest of everything

by redluxite (wordstruck)



Series: VLD One-Shots [16]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Confessions, M/M, Mentions of underage drinking, Post-Canon, Post-S6, Season 6 Spoilers, pre-kerberos flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 12:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15048911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordstruck/pseuds/redluxite
Summary: A soft sort of silence steals over them for a moment, and Shiro lets the nostalgia settle in his gut like a stray cat come to stay the night. Something’s been nagging at him since he’d woken up in a pod in the Black Lion, a curious space wolf prodding his remaining hand with its nose. It overlays the rest of his memories, yesterday and a year ago and back and back.He looks at Keith out of the corner of his eye. He’s almost level with Shiro now, just a few inches off. There’s a scar cutting up his right cheek, a hardness to the cut of his jaw. His eyes still remind Shiro of the inexorable pull of the cosmos.(A post-s6 shortfic.)





	the rest of everything

**Author's Note:**

> Based off [RedLionJax's short comic](https://twitter.com/RedLionJax/status/1010991947652259840) with their permission. A short, sweet post-s6 fic and a warm-up piece as I try to get writing again XD
> 
> Mostly un-beta'd. Will edit retrospectively as needed.

 

He’s still not used to this – Keith, that is.

Shiro finds him shuffling around the cockpit of the Black Lion, organizing their few belongings. The planet they’ve landed on is quiet and mostly safe, so Krolia is with Pidge and Hunk as they explore their immediate surroundings, trying to see if there’s anything edible. Shiro had half-expected Keith to go with them, but to his surprise, his friend had simply nodded to his mother and continued sorting through their stuff.

And so they’re here, Keith frowning as he continues to lay things out on the floor and Shiro leaning against the wall, watching him.

He feels – different.

Physically, he clearly is. Keith’s already explained that he and Krolia had been travelling around a planet that caused time warps and stretches, meaning it had taken them almost two years to reach the Altean refugees while it had only been a few weeks for the rest of the team. And Keith’s grown, in that time. He’s a little taller now, a little broader, and Shiro feels a small pang of nostalgia for the scrawny kid he’d known back at the Garrison, all scraped knuckles and gangly limbs and petulant expressions. But he knows Keith’s come a long way from that stubborn boy.

They’ve both come a long way, from cadet and junior officer. The nostalgia sharpens into something more – brittle, maybe. Breakable. Broken.

Shiro exhales, long and deliberate, trying to clear the crackle from his lungs.

It’s not just the physical difference; something about Keith feels… changed. Like he takes up more of the room – like he’s not afraid anymore of taking up room, not unsure if he’s allowed. _Decisive,_ Shiro thinks, as he looks at Keith and tries to think of how he might describe him now. Like he’s a force of intent, in and of himself.

It suits him.

“So,” he asks, startling Keith a little from his concentration, “what did you manage to get from the castle before we lost it?”

Keith stares up at him from where he’s laying out a stash of ration bars. He glances around himself, frowning. “Food supplies, survival gear… personal items.” He picks up a small satchel from behind him and holds it out. “Here, we got your things, too.”

Shiro blinks in surprise. _Huh._ “Thanks, Keith.” He takes the satchel and digs around, wondering what Keith and Krolia had managed to get while he’d been unconscious in the medical pod.

His hand brushes against something tucked away in the inner pocket of his vest. Keith’s still saying something, but Shiro isn’t paying attention. He pulls it out, smiling faintly even as the brittle feeling opens a few more cracks inside him.

“...Shiro?”

He senses rather than sees Keith get up to join him. Shiro keeps his eyes fixed on the object in his hand.

He can still remember when they’d taken the photo, on Matt’s Polaroid camera. One of the stupid parties the junior officers would throw, which the Garrison pretended didn’t happen so long as no one did anything too stupid. Shiro had snuck Keith in, only for both of them to sneak out later, Matt’s camera and four vodka cruisers in hand.

(He can still remember Keith, half a bottle away from drunk, pink all over his cheeks and the Garrison floodlights flecked in his eyes. Keith and his loose-limbed laughter and sticky-cherry-red lips, saying _one day I’m going to be up there, you know. I’m going to go further than you, further than everyone._

Shiro had looked at him, that uncontainable and firebright boy, and believed him wholeheartedly. Keith’s always been magnetic that way.

Shiro had wanted to kiss him.)

“Wow.” Keith huffs out a small laugh, peering over his shoulder. “Blast from the past. Feels like a lifetime ago.”

A lifetime and then some. Shiro’s mouth quirks. “Technically was, for me.”

Keith doesn’t take the bait; Shiro’s thankful. “I thought I left this at the shack,” he says instead.

 _Ah._ Shiro’s smile turns sheepish. “You did.” God, now he feels a little silly. “Sorry, I saw it and needed – something, to prove I was back.”

Again, Keith doesn’t take the bait, doesn’t pry. “Wasn’t really our best shot, though, was it?” And Shiro laughs at that; they do look ridiculous – Shiro’s eyes are scrunched shut, while Keith’s got one eye closed and isn’t even looking at the camera. He’s pretty sure they’d actually had a decent photo that night, but he hadn’t seen it anywhere. Not that it matters. He hadn’t taken it because they’d looked good in it, after all.

A soft sort of silence steals over them for a moment, and Shiro lets the nostalgia settle in his gut like a stray cat come to stay the night. Something’s been nagging at him since he’d woken up in a pod in the Black Lion, a curious space wolf prodding his remaining hand with its nose. It overlays the rest of his memories, yesterday and a year ago and back and back.

He looks at Keith out of the corner of his eye. He’s almost level with Shiro now, just a few inches off. There’s a scar cutting up his right cheek, a hardness to the cut of his jaw. His eyes still remind Shiro of the inexorable pull of the cosmos.

Elephant in the room, elephant in the room.

(For all that Shiro’s faced since Kerberos, it’s this that puts his heart in his throat.)

“I love you too, Keith.”

He can see the moment the words go through, in his peripheral vision. Keith stills, eyes wide. Shiro flicks his gaze away.

“We don’t talk about what happened,” he goes on, quietly. He’s rather proud his voice doesn’t shake. Might be because he’s closed his eyes. “But I remember that. The rest of the fight is a blur, but that’s the clearest thing I remember.” The rest of the fight is actually a shattered highlight reel in his mind, shot through with pain and terror and bloodlust. But what Keith had said – it had cut through the haze like the dagger he wielded. “I need you to know – I love you, fully, even if you didn’t mean it for _me_ speci—”

He doesn’t notice the hand on his shoulder, but he _does_ feel when something soft brushes his cheeks, there and gone again like a falling star. The words die in his throat. When he dares to look, Keith’s got this exasperatedly fond expression on his face, and despite all the ways Keith’s changed, it’s still a familiar sight.

Keith looks the way Shiro feels – like love.

“It’s only ever been for you, Shiro,” Keith admits softly, and _oh._ “That person I held onto as we feel was you. That person I saved was you.” A reassurance Shiro hadn’t known he’d needed. “The person we brought back to life is you. They are all you, with your memories and feelings. And it’s only ever been you I loved.”

Keith smiles.

The quiet settles around them.

Shiro looks at this uncontainable and firebright boy, and believes him wholeheartedly.

There are a hundred different things he wants to say, things like _thank you_ and _I’ve loved you for so long_ and _I would have forgiven you, you know, if you hadn’t saved me,_ and Keith’s name over and over until he’s sure all this is real. They’ve come a long way from the Garrison but they’ve shed pieces of themselves over that time and distance, a Hansel-and-Gretel trail of loss and sacrifice. Shiro still doesn’t feel like he’s all himself, and he still doesn’t know if he should be forgiven for the scar on Keith’s face, and there’s entirely too much for them to talk about. But.

But Keith’s just the right height for Shiro to lean in and press their foreheads together. The places where they touch are warm, a grounding force and a lifeline.

The rest of everything can wait.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Come say hi on social media – I'm [@okw_tr](https://twitter.com/okw_tr) on Twitter and [okwtr](https://okwtr.tumblr.com) on Tumblr, and I yell about Sheith a lot ^ ^


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